The use of mobile telephones is now widespread, with hundreds of millions of mobile telephones being in operation around the world.
The majority of current mobile telephones each provide a set of features, functionality and services, such as the ability to make and receive calls over a mobile telephone network, the ability to send and receive SMS messages, provision of electronic address books, and the like. Such features are generally found on the majority of mobile telephones.
In addition to these basic features, additional advanced features such as high-speed data access, digital cameras, videoconferencing, and the like, are found on many modern mobile telephones.
However, although a mobile telephone may have a given set of features, it may be desirable for the owner of the mobile telephone to access additional features, functionality or services which are not available on their mobile telephone. For example, a user may wish to send a multimedia message system (MMS) message but is unable to if their mobile telephone does not support access to a high-speed data network, such as GPRS. A similar situation arises where a user's phone does support GPRS but the user's subscription with the network provider does not enable GPRS access.
Similarly, a user may wish to take a digital photograph using his mobile telephone, but is unable to if his mobile telephone does not have a built-in digital camera.
Currently, the only way for users to access features, functionality or services which are not available on their mobile telephones is for the user to obtain a mobile telephone with those desired features or to upgrade their network subscription to include those missing features. However, a user may be either unable or willing to do so, due for example to the cost of purchasing a new mobile telephone or of upgrading a subscription level. At present no other alternatives are known.
Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention aims to overcome, or at least alleviate, at least some of the above-mentioned problems.